I’m not sure if they have enough space on the page to list everything fully, but Axios put together a nice summary of Biden’s year one failures today that looks like a laundry list of why Democrats are destined to lose the House and Senate in November. The high point of Biden’s first year was the bipartisan infrastructure bill, a piece of legislation that he had little to do with in terms of negotiating or crafting. Furthermore, the benefits from dropping a trillion dollars on roads, ports, and bridges will do absolutely nothing to help efforts to remedy the economic problems Americans are seeing in front of them at the gas station and grocery store.
By all measures, even quietly among ardent Biden-supporting Democrats, the first year has been an unmitigated disaster on every single front:
In the two months since signing the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law, President Biden has by almost every measure bombed big time on the things that matter most.
The big picture: Biden, who marks one year in office next Thursday, has never been less popular nationally, after personally lobbying his party and the public on Build Back Better and voting rights — and failing.
Why it matters: Biden is on the verge of losing two big fights of his choosing — with his party controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
It’s rare for a president to be at odds with Republicans, moderate Democrats and liberal Democrats — all at once. But that’s where Biden finds himself at the start of an election year that many Democrats believe will result in the loss of the House and maybe the Senate.
That’s merely the tip of the iceberg. The Covid-19 messaging has been a total disaster since Biden took office and promised and end the pandemic if enough people get vaccinated. That turned out to be roundly false, as evidenced by the world we’re all living in. Now we live in a world where Biden has fostered the demonization of anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated or can’t be for medical or religious reasons.
Biden started in January of 2021 with relatively high approval and a very low bar for success. Somehow he revered the expectations and now has a low approval rating and a dozen burning fires around him sorely in need of competent attention.
Axios continues on Biden’s inability to move the Senate on practically anything:
The latest: Yesterday was the third time in 3½ months Biden made an in-person trip to the Hill — and the third time he walked away having failed to persuade his party to back his plans.
Biden can’t be faulted for having a 50-50 Senate and an unmovable Democratic centrist in Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). But he knew the daunting numbers game full well as he went into these fights.
What happened to the great negotiator who was going to get things done in a bipartisan way? Instead, there’s nothing bipartisan about Biden’s agenda, it’s a hogwash trough of progressive bills headed for sure defeat in the Senate. Biden, unable to actually lead his party out of the gutter of left-wing ideas, let Nancy Pelosi do the driving.
What about Biden’s push for the federal voting rights bill that Democrats so desperately want to take over control of state and local elections? It’s dead, and even some liberal Democrats like Dick Durbin said the President’s speech in Georgia this week was over the top and extremely divisive:
Rising anger among Black activists: Members of some civil-rights group refused to appear with Biden for his voting speech in Atlanta. New York Times columnist Charles Blow piled on: “Biden has been dillydallying on getting rid of the filibuster to protect voting rights for essentially his whole administration, until this week.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, distanced himself from some of Biden’s rhetoric in Atlanta, where he invoked the Confederacy and Bull Connor. “Perhaps the President went a little too far,” Durbin told CNN.
Biden sold himself to voters as the calming uniter. He has now turned into the flamethrowing divider-in-chief, something he pledged to avoid. Basically, Biden is eating himself in terms of over-promising a product to voters, then performing a bait-and-switch to become a progressive warrior afraid of House minions like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Axios list continues with the rest of Biden’s greatest hits from the first year of his failing presidency:
Most polls put Biden around 42-43% approval, with over 50% disapproval. In a Quinnipiac poll this week, Biden had a 33% approval. The White House calls that an “outlier.”
The Supreme Court yesterday blocked Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers.
The Afghanistan pullout played out about as poorly as it could have.
Russia is messing with him: Biden’s warnings haven’t deterred Vladimir Putin from continuing to build toward a Ukraine invasion.
Inflation is soaring: It’s the worst in 39 years.
Empty grocery shelves get network-news coverage. It’s partly the weather, partly COVID, partly the supply chain — but makes a handy visual shorthand for national pessimism.
The polls are what they are for Biden, the latest Quinnipiac number at 33% approval may be an outlier, slightly, but it’s not that far off from reality. Perhaps the others haven’t yet caught up.
On the Supreme Court blocking Biden’s private employer vax mandate, the administration seemed to expect the result, and now asks businesses to implement the policy anyway. Never mind that Biden tried to usurp authority the government doesn’t have to force an injection in your arm or risk losing your job. Seems like a uniting stance for a president that promised to cool down the political environment.
Afghanistan can’t be encompassed with one sentence, it’s a monumental failure that would’ve gotten a Republican president rightly impeached. Biden has yet to fully pay the political price for this failure, which though is not in the headlines now, will make a big comeback when Americans consider their votes in the fall.
Russia is eating Joe’s lunch, and the outcome will inevitably not be good for the United States or Europe with Biden at the helm. His biggest resume enhancer used to be his “foreign policy” experience. A simple audit of history reveals Biden has been on the wrong side of just about every foreign engagement the United States has been involved in.
Inflation is a real kicker that the White House seems still unable to fully acknowledge or wrap its collective head around. Prices are the highest they’ve been in 40 years for consumer products and prices are soaring across the board. This data point alone would indicate a failed administration unable to manage the economy.
Finally, the supply chain debacle that Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took ownership of, and then failed to address. As a result, empty grocery store shelves speckle the country, a clear and present reminder of the failure residing in the White House.
No wonder Hillary Clinton is dusting off her campaign shoes for 2024.
